I have experience in this on both sides (as a patient and provider). Since you’ve already spoken with Medicare and they said it was a billing error you need to deal with the medical billing office. Politely call and explain that you are not trying to avoid paying bills and you will be happy to make any payments you owe once all of the issues have been ironed out. Make sure they are documenting every call you make and it’s documented that you are not ignoring the situation. Keep all of your own documentation as well of every phone call to either party.
Explain to them that the bill needs to be resubmitted with the correct billing codes. There may be an issue with “timely” billing on their part but I think they can show that it was billed before but this is a corrected billing.
This has usually worked for me.
However, in one instance I was getting no where with the medical provider billing office and we hit an impasse even after the insurance company called them and explained. In that instance, in my last call to them I explained that we had hit an impasse and I would be turning the case over to the insurance companies “balance billing/fraud department “ and that I would then pay the portion I was responsible for.
By that afternoon the billing office called and said it was all straightened out and that I owed nothing (as I had suspected)
No provider wants any issue turned in to the insurance “balance bill/fraud department”. I tried for months before going to that option but it was my insurance company that suggested this approach.
Full disclosure, this was not Medicare.
@kjofkw
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